Welt applying machine



March 17, 1942. J. P. FREDERICKSEN WELT APPLY MACHINE Filed Dec. 24, 1940 uhumwm iilllllllllligg Patented Mar. 17, 1942 Vi/ELT APPLYKNG MACHKNE Application December 24, 1940, Serial No. 371,525

8 Claims.

This invention relates to machines for applying welting to shoes, and is herein illustrated and described as embodied in a machine for applying welting to shoes of the type which has on the bottom margin of the upper an outturned flange for use in attaching the sole.

According to an improved method of making shoes of this character, the shoe is provided with a narrow abbreviated flange which is tapered with its outer surface disposed at an angle to the shoe bottom. A coating of adhesive is applied to this angular surface and also to the beveled edge of a welt strip. With the shoe and welt so coated, the welt is attached by pressing its beveled edge against the angular outer surface of the flange on the shoe. It is an object of the present invention to provide for the rapid and coat of adhesive, and means for guiding the welt- A ing strip toward the operating point of the machine where it is applied to the shoe. Further features of the invention reside in a mechanism for forming slashes in the surface of the welt, such slashes being particularly desirable about the toe end of the shoe where the welting must be bent into an arc of small radius, and a mechanism for severing the attached welt from the unattached portion of the welting strip.

The invention will be better understood when considered with relation to the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a machine embodying the invention operating upon a shoe;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view along the line 11-11 of Fig. 1 illustrating how the hammer pounds the welt and the flange into engagement with one another;

' Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the work support and welt guiding means; and

Fig, 4 is a plan view of the work support and welt guiding means illustrated in Fig. 3.

The machine is particularly suited for applying a strip of welting to a shoe having an outturned flange at the bottom margin of the upper. As shown in Fig. 2, in this type of shoe, the upper materials U are pulled over a last and insole N support toward the hammer.

and thread lasted to a middle sole N of canvas or similar material. The inseam S thus formed is then trimmed along a line substantially parallel to the shoe bottom so as to leave a tapered, outwardly-directed flange F, and to the outer surface of this flange the beveled face of a welting strip W is secured. It has been found that this latter operation may advantageously be effected by beating or pounding the flange and the welt into contact with one another, and, for performing this operation, the machine illustrated in the drawings is provided.

Referring now to Fig. 1, this machine comprises a hammer H3 yieldably mounted in an arm l2 and arranged to be reciprocated toward and away from a work support I l. The hammer and v the mechanism for reciprocating the arm are similar to those described in Letters Patent of the United States No. 875,171, granted December 31, 1907, upon the application of John B. Hadaway. As may best be seen in Fig. 2, the work support It is provided with a forwardly-projecting, tapered lip 18 which is shaped to flt into the welt crease in a shoe and provide a support for the welt when it and the flange are being beaten by the hammer ID. A bracket I8 is secured to the work support M by screws 20 which extend through elongated slots in the bracket and enable it to be adjusted forwardly or rearwardly when the screws 26 are loosened. A guide-block i2 is secured to the bracket I8 by a screw-and-- slot connection 243, and from one side of this guide block, an abutment 2% extends forwardly (i. e., in the direction of feed of the work) over the work On the opposite side of the hammer from the guide block 22, a second guide block 28 is similarly secured by a screw-and-slot connection 30 to the work support. These two guide blocks may be adjusted forwardly or rearwardly by loosening screw-andslot connections 24 and 3t] and thus may be set so as to prevent the welting strip W from moving laterally out from under the hammer [0 when the flange F of the shoe is pressed against it.

In order to insure that the welting strip will be attached to the flange properly, provision must be made for guiding it toward the operating point of the machine beneath the hammer. To this end the edge of the bracket I8 is provided with an upstanding lip 32, and a cover plate 34 secured to the bracket l8 at 36 extends forwardly and downwardly to engage this lip. The welting is thus led through a passageway, the top and bottom of-which are formed by the cover 34 and .the bracket l8, respectively, the sides being provided by the guide block 22 and the lip 32. The welting thus moves across the surface of the bracket and onto the lip l6 of the work support close against the abutment 26. It will readily be seen that the width of the passageway may be adjusted by moving the guide block 22 and, if necessary, by shifting the position of the bracket l8.

As has already been indicated, the sharp curvature of the shoe about the toe end tends to cause the welt to turn upwardly or downwardly instead of lying in a plane substantially parallel to the shoe bottom as is necessary in order to secure the best results when the sole is attached. This condition can be substantially improved by forming a series of slashes in the welting at the toe end of the shoe. In order to efiect this slashing there is provided a knife 38 mounted in a knife carrier 40 and arranged to reciprocate toward and away from the shoe between the abutment 26 and the block 28 in a plane substantially parallel to the shoe bottom to form a succession of diagonal cuts part way through the welting. The mechanism for causing the knife to reciprocate and the manner in which the slashes are formed is fully disclosed in the abovementioned Letters Patent No. 875,171, and need not be further described here.

When the welting has been applied to the shoe from the breast line around the toe and rearwardly again to the breast line, the welting strip must be severed to enable the shoe to be removed from the machine and another shoe to be inserted. To perform this operation, a cutting-01f knife 42 is provided. This knife is screwed at 44 in the slotted rod 46 which slides in a bore on the work support. This rod is connected by a pinand-slot arrangement 50 to a bell-crank lever 52 pivoted in an arm 48, the bell crank being in turn connected by a treadle rod 54 to a treadle (not shown). When the treadle rod is depressed, the knife 42 moves downwardly, severing the welting strip and then moving into slots 56 provided in the abutment 26 and the lip l6 to insure that the knife will sever the welt completely without striking any metal. A spring 56 returns the knife to its initial position when the treadle is released. It will be noted that the rod 46 moves in a path at an angle to the surface of the welt and that the cutting edge of the knife 42 is substantially normal to the rod. Thus, when the knife comes down, it will first contact the outer edge of the welting and then will sever the remaining portion of the welt progressively with a draw cut.

When the welt has been severed, there will be a tendency for the weight of the unsupported portion of the welt strip to draw the severed end of the welting rearwardly out through the welt guide and thus necessitate the operators threading the welting through the guide again. To prevent this, a spring finger 66 is riveted to the cover 34. This finger extends forwardly in the direction of feed of the welting with its pointed tip resting lightly on the flesh surface of the welting, as is shown in Fig. l, and readily permits the welting to move forwardly as it is drawn out by the movement of the shoe past the operating point of the machine. If, however, the welting begins to move rearwardly, the tip of the finger bites into the welting and prevents it from coming out through the Welt guide. A pin 62 carried in the abutment 26 helps to prevent the welting from buckling when it is being severed by the cutting-off knife 42.

In operating the machine, the end of the strip of welting is threaded through the welt guide flesh side up with the cemented beveled surface B toward the edge of the lip I 6, and with the square edge of the welt riding against the abutment 26. A shoe is then presented to the machine upside down and held by the operator in the position illustrated in Fig. 2 with the lip IS in the welt crease. As the rapidly reciprocating hammer l0 comes down, it strikes the fiat surface of the flange F and pounds it firmly into contact with the beveled surface of the welt W. The end of the welting strip having thus been anchored to the flange, the operator moves successive portions of the shoe past the operating point so that the hammer will pound or beat the flange and the welt until they are thoroughly bonded together by the adhesive throughout the entire length of the flange. As he nears the sharp curvatures at the toe end of the shoe, the operator sets in motion the slashing mechanism causing the knife 38 to form the angular slashes in the welt. These slashes permit the outer edge of the welt to stretch as it is applied, while the hammer compels the welt to hold its position substantially parallel to the shoe bottom. After the toe end of the shoe has moved past the operating point of the machine beneath the hammer, the operator disconnects the slashing mechanism and then proceeds as before. When the welt has been applied about the entire flange from the heel breast line around the toe and back to the heel breast line at the other side of the shoe, the operator depresses the treadle connected to the cutting-off knife 42 and severs the attached welt from the unattached portion of the welting strip. The shoe may be then removed from the machine and another shoe brought into position. It will be found that the severed end of the welt may easily be picked up by bringing the flange of the shoe into contact with the cemented beveled edge of the welt. Thus, the operator may rapidly and accurately apply the welting strips to a large number of shoes with a minimum of delay between shoes.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a machine for adhesively attaching strip welting to a shoe of the character described, means for supporting the welting, means for pounding the welting and the flange of the shoe into engagement with each other thereby to adhesively secure the welting to the shoe, and means for guiding the unattached welting into position to be operated upon by the pounding means.

2. In a machine for adhesively attaching strip welting to a shoe of the character described, means for pounding the welting and the flange of the shoe into engagement with each other thereby to cause the welting to be adhesively secured to-the shoe, means for guiding the unattached welting into position to be applied to the shoe, and means for forming a series of slashes in said welting as it is applied.

3. In a machine for applying welting to a shoe of the character described, means for pounding the welting and the flange of the shoe into engagement with one another thereby to cause the welting to be secured to the shoe by a previously applied coat of adhesive, means for guiding the unattached welting into position to be applied to the shoe by said pounding means, and means for severing the attached welt from the unattached portion of the welting strip.

4. In a machine for applying welting to a shoe 1 of the character described, means for supporting the welting, means for pounding the welting and the flange of the shoe into engagement with one another thereby to cause said parts to be secured together by a previously applied coat of cement, v

a guide member having a groove therein, and a covermember extending over said groove to form an enclosed passageway through which the welting moves toward said pounding means.

5. In a machine for applying welting to a shoe of the character described, means for supporting the welting, means for pounding the welting and the flange of the shoe into engagement with each other thereby to secure the welting and the flange together by means of a previously applied coat of adhesive, means for severing the attached welting from the unattached portion of the welting strip, and means for preventing rearward means, means for forming slashesin the surface of the said welting, and means for severing the attached welt from the unattached portion of the welting strip.

7. In a machine for applying welting to a shoe of the character described, a welting support, a

hammer constructed and arranged to beat the welting and the flange of the shoe together thereby to cause the parts to be adhesively secured to one another by a previously'applied coat of cement, a guide for directing said welting toward the hammer, and anabutment constructed and arranged to prevent lateral movement of the welting strip away from the flange when the parts are being beaten together.

8. In a machine for applying welting to a shoe of the character described, a welting support, a hammer constructed and arranged to beat the welting and the flange of the shoe together thereby to cause the parts to be adhesively secured to one another by a previously applied coat of cement, a guide for directing said welting toward the hammer, a pair of spaced abutments constructed and arranged to prevent lateral movement of the welting strip away from the flange when the parts are being beaten together, and an angularly disposed knife reciprocable toward and away from the flange in the space between the abutments to form a series of oblique slashes in one face of the welting strip.

JANLEIS P. FREDERICKSEN. 

